ILM, ALIM, ULAMA

Ayin, Lam, Mim – knowledge, insight, enlightenment 

   Ayin, Lam, Mim – in this order and in this sequence – are three very significant and frequent letters in the Qur'an. 

   Ayin, Lam, Mim have generated several hundred words in the Qur'an, in different forms, all of which signify true knowledge and cognition, the guarantee of learning and understanding, and the insight and enlightening of man's steps in this and the future world. 

  Qur'anic ilm or ilum is most often used together with God and with man. The Qur'an quite resolutely says: Fa'lam annahu la ilaha illa llah! (Know that God is one!)

  In this way ilum, or knowledge, is promoted as a valid and legitimate road to faith in God.

When Ayin, Lam, Mim are used together with God, they typically signify the Divine knowledge of the ultimate purpose and destiny of everything, of all things and all beings in endless worlds, these and those in the future. 

 On the other hand, when Ayin, Lam, Mim are used together with man, they primarily signify man's knowledge or understanding of the right path and true good in the world. On the pages of the Qur'an ilm often means the knowledge and understanding of man's ultimate pledge and duty in this world. 

  In the Qur'an and Islam, Ilm or ilum signifies undeniable Divine knowledge. However, since God has trust in man, ilmalso signifies the knowledge and cognition of man, which spring from God's knowledge. 

  The ultimate result of Qur'anic ilm is as follows: We receive God's knowledge both from the pages of the Divine Epistles, Revelations and Books, and from the multifaceted books of Nature. Man is invited to immerse himself in all these pages.

 Man's continuous mission through time is to make this sublime and noble Divine knowledge part of man's knowledge as well. 

  With this knowledge, man becomes God's accomplice in doing and achieving good, since ilm refines and exalts man, bestowing dignity upon him. 

It is at this point, in the meeting between God's ilm and man's ilm, that one should seek the foundation and emergence of men of knowledge in Islam, Islamic scholars, or ulama.

   Ulama – selfless interpreters of Islamic sources

  Throughout the sacred history before God's prophet Muhammad, a.s., the voice of God and tidings of God typically reached people as a transient blaze of wonder. 

   God's prophets, and the men and women of ancient times that were the closest to them, saw these phenomena.  

  They lasted only briefly, and the witnesses of these miracles acquired a special position in their time and their generation. 

  In a sense, this is the way in which the class of priests was formed, since they were respected as exceptional and privileged witnesses of supernatural events and of these visions.

  In Islam the ulama also testify to the supernaturalness of the Divine Qur'an, though the ulama is not a priest class. What is the difference?

    The eternal Word of God, the Qur'an, did not happen as an instance of a privileged miracle for privileged people in only one period of time. As the ultimate revelation of God, the Qur'an – in the form of beautiful and wonderful Divine Speech and Words – revolved and revealed itself to all people, to all times, to all ages.  

The Qur'anic miracle resists being exclusively owned by anybody, being anybody's mysterious possession.

 Never has a single time, a single age confined the miracle of the Qur'an within itself, nor has it exhausted it. 

  Although it is certain that the time of Muhammad, a.s., and his friends was an exceptional and blessed time, the Qur'an has never become the exclusive privilege of the Prophet's ashab (associates), nor has the miracle of the Qur'an ever become the privileged secret of particular listeners, onlookers or witnesses. The Qur'an has nothing in common with inaccessible privileged people.

   It is in such circumstances that the ulama of Islam emerged, as well as their calling to be well-known and recognized, in all Muslim communities and societies in general, as a group of highly moral individuals, selfless experts in the Qur'an and Sunnah, selfless benefactors of the spiritual virtues of the religion of Islam. 

  Alims and ulama are in no respect above other people, they do not have any Divine privileges and prerogatives, they do not know any lifesaving secrets that would separate them from other people. 

 The most important feature and mark of the ulama is knowledge and familiarity with the religious origins of Islam, not such that they jealously keep the knowledge for themselves but that they permanently spread it and reveal it.

   Ulama and the duty to contextualize the messages of Islam 

     It is the mission of the ulama to transmit the miracle of the Qur'an, to spread the abundance of God's eternal Word and Qur'anic speech that testifies to God's eternity in itself. 

    Ulama, the learned people and experts in Islam, invariably transmit and interpret the miracle of the Eternal Word, as has been happening since its appearance in time. The ulama, the learned people and experts in Islam, open the Message of the Qur'an and the origins of Islam to all people, all ages, all cultural zones. 

    In Islam, the task of spreading the Qur'an, opening the Qur'an, presenting the Qur'an has been assigned to learned people, ulama, to experts in Islam. The task of the ulama and experts in Islam is not to secretively hide the Qur'an in a Treasury, “sealed with seven seals”, but to contextualize the Qur'anic message in the changes in time and age, to make it accessible, and allow it to have a dialogue with the spiritual mood of any time, across all epochs.

        Proximity to the Qur'an, closeness with man 

  Ever since their emergence, the ulama, experts in Islam, have possessed two kinds of closeness. 

  They have been close to the Qur'an and to the origins of Islam, they have devotedly learned its message, opened its pages and revealed the messages, meanings, allusions, moments, flashes, inspiration and encouragement on their pages, which pertained to their time. 

  On the other hand, the ulama and experts in Islam have been close to people, they have known their issues from a life that overflows, circulates, flows on all sides and often strides in unpredictable directions. 

  Practically, the ulama  m e d i a t e  the great knowledge and tradition of Islam to people and Muslim communities, though without becoming or having become a mediator between God and man.  

  In short, the ulama mediate knowledge of God, but this does not make them a proprietor of man's salvation before God.

   Not to possess Islam, but to release its messages by interpreting them 

     Throughout the history of Islam, the ulama reached their highest moral peaks when they were conscious of their selfless mediation of Islamic knowledge. 

    The ulama experienced their greatest moral downfalls when they not only thought of taking but even dared to take ownership of Islam, proprietorship of the Qur'an and Hadith, ownership of man's salvation.

     The ulama must be aware of the consequences of their traditional duty as interpreters of the message of religion, they must be vigilant with respect to their acts and deeds.

     In the beginning, we said that the letters Ayin, Lam, Mim in Qur'an mean knowledge, true knowledge. 

      At the end of this discussion, it should be noted that the order of the letters Ayin, Mim, Lam in the Qur'an signifies doing good deeds (amel).  

     Ilm, or the knowledge of the ulama, must be seen in their good deeds.

The ulama'samelwill be good as long as it is devoted and selfless; as long as they, with full moral authority, mediate and contextualize the eternal messages of the Qur'an, Sunnah and Islam in the times and spaces where people of Islam live and die.